Go Books in Browsers from Google!

We are excited to see commercial books from many publishers being made available through web browser technology from Google eBookstore. As a standards based system, reading in a browser offers an opportunity for many more people to actively participate in the evolving digital book ecology.

The advantage of “books in browsers” over dedicated devices and even app store-based selling is that books can come from any website, read on many more devices, and be findable with standard search technologies.

The Google eBook Reader

Buying books that are delivered in a browser is now being demonstrated on a massive scale by Google. This is great news as it shows that the security measures offered are good enough for commercial players.

Lending books through a browser that recreates the traditional library-check-out system was demonstrated at the Books in Browsers 2010 summit at the Internet Archive. Lending and vending of books using browsers can pave the way for many winners:

Authors can find wider distribution for their work.Publishers both big and small can now distribute books directly to readers.Book sellers can find new and larger audiences for their products.Device makers can offer access to millions of books instantly.Libraries can continue to loan books in the way that patrons expect.Readers could start to get universal access to all knowledge.

I am especially excited to see the possibilities in platform independent social reading and beautifully designed ebooks that could come from browser based books.

13 Responses to Go Books in Browsers from Google!

One question that remains to be answered, is whether or not libraries that digitize books outside of Google Books (or other international initiatives) can find an incentive – probably in the form of sustainable models – for digitizing large ‘special collections’ of books, such as books in languages other than English, or copyrighted materials.

I wanted to reread some of the classics that I studied in the 1950’s and thanks to the efforts of many people, many of those books are available free online in pdf, txt or e-reader formats. They are now easy to locate. In addition, many newer books are available free in digital format. Many new books that are free in digital format can be bought in hard copy if desired. Many authors find this gives their books popularity that increases overall sales since many people go on to buy a copy after reading the digital version.
Mikethephilosopher

I use Google E books for my work and I think it is just a great step forward in civilization, but copyrights are a huge setback. How to solve this problem? Ask 50 of worlds leading libraries to pay yearly 50 publishing companies in order to get all their copyrights. Paper books will be sold out after one or two years, e books never. The libraries ask their readers to pay extra for the service. Who would not be willing to do that, to have access to a huge amount of books? Money is going in a new circle: from readers to libraries, to the publishers. Everybody will gain by this.